(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to agricultural earth working implements and more particularly to an intermittently rotating dammer.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Dammers are known in agricultural practices as those implements which periodically form a dam in a furrow. The dam holds water in a specific place along the furrow and prevents it from flowing along the furrow. p One type of dammer is to have a shovel or hoe-like implement attached by a long arm behind a draft vehicle. The implement is periodically lifted to leave a dam in the furrow. Different mechanisms have been developed for periodically lifting the implement but they all involve mechanisms of different degrees of complexity.
Before this application was filed, applicant had a patentability search made in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The following references were found on this search:
KAUFMAN U.S. Pat. No. 319,722; ELLIOT U.S. Pat. No. 2,193,275; SILVER U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,038; VRATIL U.S. Pat. No. 2,233,331; NIELSEN U.S. Pat. No. 2,236,832; DAVIS U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,103.
VRATIL discloses what he identifies as a damming attachment for plows. It is shown attached to a flat breaking plow and applicant believes that it should more accurately be characterized as a puddling attachment. It appears to applicant that it would scoop out small depressions or ponds or puddles and leave a little pond along with a little hill adjacent to it. It operates by extending at an angle to the direction of draft and the hub of the implement is also at an angle to the direction of draft. As the four blades upon the implement rotates, each scoops up a little pond or depression in the soil in the field which is otherwise in a flat, unfurrowed condition.
ELLIOT, NIELSEN and SILVER each discloses three or four legs or paddles on a hub which are restrained from rotating by a trip mechanism. When the trip is released, the paddle wheel is permitted to rotate to form a dam within the furrow.
The remaining two patents seem to applicant not to be as pertinent as those specifically discussed above.